o
exhaust. He
parked
the bike less than two
laps from the end.
"The
situation
is very
difficult and
roday corJld nor have been worse.' Rossi
said.
'All
weekend we've struggled, and
we didn't find the right
way
to
go
with the
setting
ofthe bike. ln the race, I stafted to
lose all
my grip when the
problem
with
the tire began, and then when lslowed
the
problem
with the cooling system
arrived, so that was it. I saw the smoke
and
I knew I had to stop.
"l
don't know what to say about the
championship to be honest; we only
have
six races left which
is maybe not enough
to make up the
difference, but anyway, I
want to try to have some fun and win a5
much as
possible."
John
Hopkins
finished well
behind
reammate
Vermeulen in sixth. The
Californian endured
a series of little
prob-
lems that
prevented
him from moving
into the top
five.
"Our
tires weren't that bad o, an issue,
but at the end of the day we
were
on a
different tire
[than
Vermeulen]," he said.
"But
we
got
points
and
8ot
to move on.
There's nothing else we can do.
We
moved up a
place
in the championship. I
can't completely be too
upset."
Neither could Tech 3 Yamaha's Carlos
Checa
in seventh, the
best finish of the
year for
the Dunlop-r.rsang
Spaniard.
Loris Capirossi brought the first of the
Marlboro Ducati!
home in eighth and was
happy for it.
"lt
was impossible for me to do better
than this,'' he
said.
"l
never
gave
up. I
passed
Sete
[Gibernau]
and
[Makoto]
Tamada, built a
gap and then controlled
the
gap to
rhe
end."
The heat, and the
flu earlier in the
week, caused Camel
Yamaha's Colin
Edwards
to considered
pulling
in, But
he
didn'r.
lnstead he
rode to the end and was
rewarded with ninth
place,
which allowed
him to
pull
back some
points
on Stoner.
'After
l2 laps I almost
came in."
t
\
\
Nicky Hoyden won his second suc(essive U.5,
GP
qnd
the
celebrqtion
begon.
CYCLE NE!,r'S
.
AUGUST 2.2006
19
+
+
+
I
+
I
+
I
t
il
I
)
(
\
I
i
c
F
11
/
/
7
/
\
;
